TO:
POPE JOHN PAUL II, VATICAN CITY, EUROPE
AND THE PERSONS IN CHARGE OF THE
CANONIZATION OF MOTHER HENRIETTE DELILLE

It
has come to our attention that regarding the proposed canonization of Mother Henriette
DeLille that her ethnic
identification has been GROSSLY MISREPRESENTED by
the groups of people in charge of such proposed canonization.

TO
WIT: Mother Henriette DeLille has been represented by the Sisters of the Holy
Family, whose diocese is in New Orleans, Louisiana, to have been born as a NATIVE-BORN
AFRICAN-AMERICAN. When in fact the truth of the matter is that Mother DeLille
was a NATIVE-BORN FRENCH-CREOLE AMERICAN. This information is documented in Louisiana
History.

HENRIETTE DELILLE, was the
daughter of JEAN DELILLE SARPY, who was of French and Italian birth; and her mother
was of French and African Birth (in Louisiana, considered a French-Creole). Therefore,
when a person of French and Italian birth had offspring with a gens de couleur
libre in the 1800's, that offspring was considered to be of NATIVE BORN FRENCH
-CREOLE AMERICAN birth and not JUST AND ONLY NATIVE-BORN AFRICAN-AMERICAN.

It
follows that the Sisters of the Holy Family in their misrepresentation of Mother
Henriette DeLille, operating under a strictly political stance, and in order to
give all of her birth and sainthood credit to the AFRICAN-AMERICANS, are using
the ONE-DROP POLICY RULE of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, which has been outlawed
legally as far back as 1975, when before that time held that ONE DROP OF AFRICAN
blood an AFRICAN did make. So as you can see that as of 1989, the ONE DROP POLICY
was outlawed prior thereto.

We are also aware that the ONE-DROP POLICY RULE only
came to existence many years after the birth of Mother Henriette DeLille, and
perhaps even years after her death. That rule came about almost 30 years after
the Civil War of 1862 - 1864 when the South lost the Civil War and slavery was
abolished; and the South therefore wanted to give vengeance to all who had any
blood of the slaves in their veins.

To further that vengeance, the United States
Government and especially the Southern States, legislated the racial identity
of all Native-Born French Creoles to that of Negro and Black. Racial identity
is something inherent to an individuald and should not be legislated by anyone.
If one would check the U.S. Archive records, one will find that before the 1900
Census, all Creoles were listed as "M" for Mulatto (meaning multiracial)
and all African-Americans were listed as "B" for Black.

We
do not deny that Mother DeLille has African blood as part of her ancestry and
we are proud of that, and we find no problem with that, but then that was only
one portion of her ancestry. Therefore Mother Henriette DeLille by virtue of her
ethnic makeup was of multiracial origin. And when she was born, she was automatically
a Gens de Colour Libre, and in Louisiana that identification meant that you were
not just African but of various ethnic origins and came under the meaning of being
FRENCH-CREOLE. To wit: A person born in the New World of European and African
ancestry - native to the place. In other words A FRENCH-CREOLE-AMERICAN.

The
definition of a French- Creole-American states that the person has French, Spanish,
African and Indian ancestry along with other various European ancestry as the
case may be. In the mid 1700's and mid 1800's these various racial groups formed
family unions and had offsprings which were multiracial in origin.

You
might ask, "Why wasn't this declaration and protest made earlier since the
Proposed Canonization has been going on as far back as 1989.?" The answer
to this is that Declarations and Protests were made to the Sisters of the Holy
Family immediately after it was learned that their ethnic identication of Mother
DeLille was incorrect. However, regardless of the Protests, the Sisters of the
Holy Family has continued their misidentification of Mother DeLille throughout
issuance of pamphlets, contributions to biographies , thinking that they could
succeed in this venture because of the sacred nature of this cause, and that no
one would dare to contradict them once they had continued to mislead the public.

We, as French-Creole Americans, now living in all of the United States of America
and throughout the world, all with ancestry stemming from the late 1700's and
early 1800's in the state of Louisiana, petition your most gracious entity, to
have the SISTERS OF THE HOLY FAMILY AND ALL OTHERS INVOLVED IN THE PROPOSED

CANONIZATION OF MOTHER HENRIETTE
DELILLE as Blessed and Saint,CEASE AND DESIST THE MISIDENTIFICATION
of Mother Henriette DeLille as JUST AND ONLY NATIVE-BORN AFRICAN
AMERICAN and identify her as the NATIVE BORN FRENCH-CREOLE
AMERICAN WHICH SHE TRULY WAS IN THE HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS,
LOUISIANA..

We make this plea in hopes that we might avoid legal action
against the parties herein in a matter so sacred as this cause
and that all publications, lectures, biographies, movies,
television programs and church ceremonies throughout the world
might be corrected in time so as to avoid this most grievious
mistake.

One of the greatest miracles which is hoped for toward Mother
DeLille's canonization is that the world will finally accept
the fact that a people of the world can be of more than one
ethnic race and that they can be recognized for all of them
without having to choose one over the other.